SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) – The Bay Area could be in for another holiday weekend of no fires in the fireplace. Air quality officials are ready to crackdown after too many people ignored calls for voluntary, as well as mandatory restrictions on wood burning fires over the Christmas weekend.

More than 400 people called in to complain about neighbors burning wood when they weren’t supposed to, 77 of those cases could result in violations, and if they’re repeat offenders it could cost them a $400 fine.

“We use those complaints, and look for areas where we’ve got reports of the most burning. That’s where we direct our inspectors,” said Lisa Fasano, spokeswoman for the Air Quality Management District.

KCBS’ Holly Quan Reports:

She said that they’ve seen 2,200 complaints since Nov 1st. Monday’s air was so bad it rivaled conditions seen during the 2008 wildfires.

“We’re seeing that kind of blow out where the breezes are coming up and we’re cleaning out this week, but as we look at the long range forecast, it’s looking like Friday may be a recommended no-burn day and we may have to call a no-burn day for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day,” said Fasano.

(Copyright 2011 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

I don’t either. The problem is that the sheeple are using their 1950’s fireplace for warmth, a fireplace that was designed for appearance, not for warmth. These are about the least effective way to heat a home.

Upgrade your fireplace to current codes, and you don’t have to deal with these restrictions. AND you burn a lot less wood that way too!

As long as you don’t USE your decorative fireplace, you aren’t. As soon as you USE it, you are polluting air which is NOT YOURS to pollute.

You can’t just take other people’s air and use it for whatever you want anymore than you can go build your house in the public park. Just because it’s a public good doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want.

The MEDIA can be such a patsy sometimes. Did they even bother to verify that “400” Mrs. Kravits’ ACTUALLY called in to snitch on their neighbors of many years? I highly doubt it. This is the elitest BAAQMB making up a story to get the sheeple to comply with their environmental wacko demands.

That’s the point… CBS San Francisco is publishing an unverifiable story (provided by a highly manipulative agency) as fact. But I say te BAAQMB lying to shape public opinion. And the media is bending over backwards to assist them.

BAAQMB TEMPLATE
1. Issue some Spare The Air Alerts one year.
2. Issue a few more the next year.
3. Issue a few more the year after, and include a holiday or two.
4. Issue A “Voluntary S-T-A Alert” to prod the poor fools into compliance.
5. Clain the poor fools did nothing to honor the benevolent BAAQMB’s request.
6. Claim that 400 fine citizens called in to rat out their fire burning neighbors.
7. Get tougher and issue more S-T-A Alerts.
8. Claim that federal funds will be lost if the poor fools don’t comply.
9. Monitor the news comments and respond when the poor fools get wise to us.
9. Rejoice because we, the BAAQMB, are drunk with power. Wahahaha!!!!

GUAPI: You’ve got all sorts of points, let’s see if I can address some of them:

>>That’s the point… CBS San Francisco is publishing an unverifiable story (provided by a highly manipulative agency) as fact.
That’s what ALL news “producers” do. Almost NONE of them these days know anything about anything. When there was a story about Google going to solar power, I emailed the reporter, and she didn’t know that Larry Page and Sergi Brin, Google’s founders, had recently invested in a solar panel maker. She hadn’t even read HER OWN NEWSPAPER !!

Most of the news places just get a press release, and reformat it to fit into the space they have. This includes business press releases, and every other group without any particular bias: Sierra Club, NRA, Republican Party, Democratic Party whoever. The bias is toward doing whatever is as cheap as possible, i.e. fast fast fast, and using the cheapest possible labor source, i.e. intern’s, part-timers.

Af Faux News is even worse than the mainstream media !

>>BAAQMB TEMPLATE
>>1. Issue some Spare The Air Alerts one year.
>>2. Issue a few more the next year.
>>3. Issue a few more the year after, and include a holiday or two.

Um, I don’t think so. I can to the valley in 1984, and the number of Spare The Air alerts has decreased quite a bit over that time frame. That is both my personal experience and that’s also what BAAQMD wil tell you.

>>8. Claim that federal funds will be lost if the poor fools don’t comply.
Well, that is actually true.

>>9. Monitor the news comments and respond when the poor fools get wise to us

Uh, I haven’t seen any BAAQMD response to the news comments.

>>9. Rejoice because we, the BAAQMB, are drunk with power. Wahahaha!!!!

I have no idea what you are talking about. You can get more power than BAAQMD by changing lanes on the way to work and forcing some stranger to change lanes to avoid crashing with you. They have very specific powers, and the powers they have are extremely limited. I would think it would be really really frustrating to work at BAAQMD. This fireplace bruhaha has been going on for nearly 30 years with only limited improvement.

Generally, yes, it’s San Francisco, the journalism standards ARE lower, BUT

How do you suggest this reporter verify or confirm this number ? This is an agency reporting on it’s own internal numbers, on data that only originates with this agency, on calls that go directly to this agency.

I agree bob. Turn in your neighbors like Hitlers Youth. I do not think that is a bad analogy. What is next? If you burn you will be round up and put into a ghetto or possibly a concentration camp. I am a little afraid to leave this comment because the Spare the Air board will look up my address and hunt me down. My father served in WWII to rid us of governments like this.

I will do everything in my power, vote, write my representative and do everthing lawfully to oppose this government intrusion of life.

Agree, agree, agree and agree with most of the comments. The media and the government are a bit too cozy with each other. So much for the media being a watchdog. Creepy little government lapdogs most of the time. And I agree with the comments earlier — I’ve been asthmatic all my life as well and I have no problem with people burning wood in the fireplace either. I love it. I love the smell and need the heat. They ought to allow burning on sentimental favorite days like Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve. They can ban all the other days if they want, but the BAAQCB is begging for civil disobedience by banning burning over the holidays. I also want to know how are they going to prove any burning was coming from your household? Because unless they have pictures of smoke coming out of your chimney, how do you determine who was actually burning wood? A neighbor’s word is good enough to get you fined? Wow, they could be mistaken or out to get you for something else. I want to know how a person would fight such an accusation? Identifying infractions has to be a problem.

Guess I’m the only one to disagree. Do any of you look at the hills or skylines from a distance and notice the heavy smog that is in our air? It isn’t just caused by driving, and burning of wood just exasperates the problem.

I find it disgusting that a government agency depends on neighbors turning in neighbors for enforcement of its arbitrary rules. How did this agency get its authority anyway? Who voted for them and how do they get to dictate to everyone. Why are so many people so eager to report on their neighbors? There is something wrong with this type of policy. It sets a bad precedence. Smoky air seems to be the least of what stinks.

How did this agency get its authority anyway?
The “tolerant” Left granted it to them.

Who voted for them?
The “tolerant” Left.

how do they get to dictate to everyone?
Because it has been decided that anything deemed good for “the environment” is more important than freedom.

Why are so many people so eager to report on their neighbors?
They have a sense righteous superiority because they have been taught to believe caring about the environment is the most important thing one can do. That will trump being a reasonable neighbor every time.

This is the type of society created by decades of unchecked liberalism. Enjoy your freedoms while they last.

It is precisely because of idiotic laws like “spare the air days” that I knowingly have not given a dime to any environmental organization for more than a decade. It’s the Sierra Club, Earth First, Greenpeace and all the rest that support this garbage.

The ban cover all wood burning, ignoring the fact that pellet stoves create little smoke and people spent a lot of cash to be green using them.
“Pellet stoves are typically cleaner and more efficient than wood stoves.17 Technologies are used to ensure the best fuel‐to‐air ratio in the combustion chamber so that the fuel can burn completely.18 The combustion air is forced to go through the fire, releasing a maximum amount of heat to the room instead of letting it escape from the venting.19 If used correctly, pellet stoves produce very little smoke and creosote, the latter being the main cause of chimney fire.20
Cost and Other Considerations Pellet stoves can be more expensive to purchase and operate than wood stoves. A pellet stove usually costs from $1700 to $3000.

Notice how they like to call these “spare the air days” on major holidays? Last year it was Thanksgiving, this year it is Christmas and maybe New Year’s. Unbelievable that we are letting these petty bureaucrats run our lives and using tactics straight out of East Germany and the USSR. Why aren’t these agencies the ones getting budget cuts?

If I come to your front yard and take a dump, you would complain to someone, no? Then why shouldn’t I complain when people damage the air I breathe? One form of pollution is no different from the other. How about we stop whining about “the gubment”, and take personal responsibility about our actions and how they effect the people around us? If we did that, then people wouldn’t resort to passing laws in order to protect themselves.

Oh and don’t think for a minute that because your front yard is private property, that pollution from it on on it cannot be damaging to others.
So I guess if I start burning tires in my front yard, the neighbors better shut up about it. Because if they don’t that meant they “hate freedom”, eh?

Until they start the regulating the air in China…it is unlikely that our “sparing the air” will have much of a global impact. And I DO think it forces a change in a basic principle of privacy when we can report on our neighbors…hire someone to drive around and look but don’t ask people to tell on their neighbors…that becomes a very slippery slope!

I think this should be regulated like septic tanks. You have to prove compliance or convert to city sewage services when you sell the house. No exceptions. The air would be a lot cleaner, and we would have all this whining about a right to pollute that nobody has.

“Nanny State” Nazis at it again! They(all these liberal pork barrel agencies) are those who gloat over neighbors who turn in their neighbors as did those who squealed on people hiding the Jews from Hitler’s Gestapo.